Bochum Travel Guide
A detailed destination guide for your next Germany vacation
Bochum Overview
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and surrounded by the cities of Essen (Essen vacation rentals | Essen travel guide), Gelsenkirchen (Gelsenkirchen vacation rentals | Gelsenkirchen travel guide), Herne (Herne vacation rentals | Herne travel guide), Castrop-Rauxel (Castrop-Rauxel vacation rentals | Castrop-Rauxel travel guide), Dortmund (Dortmund vacation rentals | Dortmund travel guide), Witten (Witten vacation rentals | Witten travel guide) and Hattingen (Hattingen vacation rentals | Hattingen travel guide).
A thriving metropolis, the city boasts many buildings and sights to take in. Surrounded by several major cities, it is a good central point for things to do.
Where to stay in Bochum?
Check out our selection of hand-selected and quality Bochum vacation rentals and holiday apartments.
Things to See in Bochum
Buildings
- The City Hall was opened in 1931. The planes were made by the architekt Prof. Karl Roth. The layout is strictly symmetric, the facade is plain. The hall divides the atrium in two parts, where fountains made by travertine and bronze are situated - left hand the fountain of beauty, right hand the fountain of happiness. Thea were designed by Professor Vogel from Berlin (Berlin vacation rentals | Berlin travel guide).
- Brewing House Rietkötter, probably the oldest residential building in Bochum, dates from 1756. It is a witness of times were Bochum was an agricultural small town. Today it houses a restaurant.
- Warehouse Kortum dates from 1913, build as a bruch of the warehouse-group Alsberg from Cologne (Cologne vacation rentals | Cologne travel guide). Its facade still shows the charme of the beginning of the 20th century. As a result of the decentralization process in the nineties the warehouse was closed down and the building was unused for years. Today it houses an electronic warehouse.
- Lueg-House/Union cinema, opened in 1924, was the first house in a municipal style in Bochum. It was ordered by the Lueg-company and realised by the architect Emil Pohle as a brickstone-house according to the office buildings of the Hanseatic League.
- Restaurant Mutter Wittig is a baroque-style house downtown opend in 1870.
Churches
- Propsteikirche St. Peter und Paul, the most ancient church of the city, built in 785-800 by Charlemagne. It was rebuilt in the 11th century but after a fire in 1517 had to be reconstructed, starting from 1547, in late-Gothic style. The 68 m-high bell tower is one of the landmarks of Bochum. The interior includes an 1175 baptismal font, the relic shrine of St. Perpetua and her slave Felicitas, and a high altar with a 1352 Crucifix.
- Pauluskirche, the main Protestant church of the city. It was built in the 1650s with donations from across Northern Europe.
- The Christuskirche, opened in 1879 in a neo-Gothic style, was among the most beautiful churches in Europe. In 1931 the room in the steeple was extended to a cenotaph for the killed of wwI. During an air attack in 1943 the church was nearly destroyed, only the steeple was left. After the war the ruin was integrated in the reconstruction planes and the steeple became a memorial dedicated to peace and understanding among the nations and it will be main part of the Platz des Europäischen Versprechens (Square of the European Promise), which is under construction in front of the steeple.
- Neo-Gothic Marienkirche (1868-1872). (Slated for demolition as of 2008.)
Museusm
- The German Mining Museum is among the leading of its kind worldwide. Whatever you want to know about mining, here you can experience it. Address: Am Bergbaumuseum 28
- Railway Museum and Station Dahlhausen in the borough of Dahlhausen. Dr.-C.-Otto-Straße 191
- Zeiss Planetary
- At the city's borderline to Herne-(Röhlinghausen) is located the former mine Zeche Hannover (Hannover vacation rentals | Hannover travel guide) with the Malakow-Tower and the engine hall. Here you will find the steam-powered winding-engine, which will be operated at events.
[ source: wikipedia ]
Maps and Driving Directions to Bochum
Bochum is connected to the Autobahn network by the A 40, A 43 and A 44 autobahns. Bochum has a central station situated on the line from Duisburg to Dortmund, connecting the city to the long-distance network of Deutsche Bahn as well as to the S-Bahn network of Rhine-Ruhr.
Travel Insider Tips for Bochum
Our favoriite Currywurst stop is the Bratwursthauschen in Bochum...it's time for another trip to Germany when the 2 jars we bring home are empty!
Shared by Gail Huhtamaki, Feb 2010
My husband was born in Bochum. The Bratwursthauschen has been his #1 choice for Currywurst for over 40 years! It is a hole-in-the-wall place located in downtown Bochum at Bermuda Dreieck. Also, every visit to Bochum should include a visit to the beautiful Rathaus.
Shared by Gail Huhtamaki, Mar 2010
Mining Museum
[ source: Wikipedia]
Related Sites
We collected some useful links related to Bochum. If you know a few more sites not listed here, or also know some insider tips or point of interests for this destination? Please share and submit your Germany travel tip. If approved it will be shown on this page!
- Homepage of Bochum: Bochum (official home page)
- Wikipedia: Bochum
More about the History of Bochum
The foundations of Bochum were started in the 9th century when Charlemagne set up a royal court at the junction of two important trade routes and it was first officially mentioned in 1041 by the name Cofbuokheim in a document of the archbishops of Cologne (Cologne vacation rentals | Cologne travel guide). Originally it may have meant "Brookhome" or "Bacheim" later it seems to have gained the notorious reputation of "Bookhorn" or "Horn" "Book". In 1321 Count Engelbert II von der Marck granted Bochum a town charter, but the town remained insignificant until the 19th century, when coal mining and steel industry emerged in the Ruhr area, leading to the growth of the entire region. The population of Bochum increased from about 4,500 in 1850 to 100,000 in 1904 and Bochum acquires city status. The increase based on immigration, mainly from East-Europe, and on incorporation of surrounding towns and villages.
As a strategic bombing target of the Oil Campaign of World War II, nearly the whole inner circle of the city was destroyed and many thousands of citizens were killed.[1] After the war the new state North Rhine-Westphalia was established on the area the regions of Rhinelands and Westphalia and Bochum as a part of the state.
All the coal mines went out of business between 1960 and 1980. Other industries, such as car making, compensated for the loss of jobs. The Opel Astra is assembled by General Motors at their plant here; however, by 2009, the Opel factory was in serious financial trouble. In 1965 the Ruhr University was opened, the first university in the Ruhr area and the first to be founded in Germany since World War II. Since the seventies Bochum's industry is running through a structural transformation: from heavy industry to service sector.
In the course of a comprehensive community reform in 1975, Wattenscheid, a formerly independent city, was integrated into the urban area of Bochum. An exerted local referendum against the integration failed. In 2007 the new synagoge of the Jewish community of Bochum, Herne (Herne vacation rentals | Herne travel guide) und Hattingen (Hattingen vacation rentals | Hattingen travel guide) was opened. In 2008 Nokia planned on closing down its production plant. The plans met heavy opposition and 20,000 people showed up for the protests. But they couldn't prevent the closing down at least.
[ source: wikipedia ]
What makes this Live Like a German Bochum Travel Guide special...
This Bochum travel guide provides you with an overview of Bochum, Bochum pictures, and a local travel guide that suggests many special trips, unique activities, and vacation ideas, that you can't find in a typical Germany travel guide.
Some of this information is compiled from popular and well-known sources (e.g., such as Wikipedia, Wikitravel, and great pictures from Flickr). However, what makes this Germany travel guide special is that most of the travel suggestions and insider tips are provided by local residents, property owners, and our readers, who share and submit their travel tips with us. All submissions are then editorially reviewed to ensure high quality. All this information is logically organized within this destination guide to make it easy for you to find things quickly.
In addition, the Bochum destination guide features restaurant recommendations, restaurant reviews, where to go for grocery shopping, sports activities, getting around, cultural events and highlights, entertainment, and health related information - so you are informed for your travel to Germany, and you can learn about all the cool things you can do during your Germany vacation!
